ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to evaluate Kerala’s development experience, widely characterized as a ‘Model’ in the context of the neoliberal economic reforms implemented in India since mid-1991. This evaluation is done using the capability and freedom perspective developed by Amartya Sen.1 The chapter is organized into three parts:
Part I, explains why I chose the capability perspective and what it means; Part II, tries to capture the essential features of the ‘Kerala Model’ from the freedom/capability perspective. In Part III, I try to examine the emerging ‘virtuous cycle of growth’ in Kerala from the broad perspective of ‘development as freedom’ using selected parameters, followed by a few concluding observations.
